RATIONALE: Peripheral stem cell transplantation may be able to replace immune cells that were destroyed by chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Sometimes the transplanted cells can make an immune response against the body's normal tissues. Cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil may prevent this from happening.

PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of chemotherapy and total-body irradiation followed by donor peripheral stem cell transplantation, cyclosporine, and mycophenolate mofetil in treating older patients who have acute myeloid leukemia.

Determine whether allogeneic peripheral blood stem cell transplantation with pre-conditioning low dose total body irradiation and fludarabine followed by cyclosporine and mycophenolate mofetil, when given to elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission, is sufficiently efficacious (in terms of survival 1 year after transplantation) to warrant a phase III investigation.

Secondary objective:

Determine the frequency and severity of toxic effects of this regimen in these patients.

Other objectives as funding permits:

Determine whether chimerism patterns in bone marrow and blood after transplantation are associated with relapse and/or graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) in these patients.

Determine whether cytogenic, immunophenotypic, and molecular biologic features detected in pre- and post-transplantation specimens are related to transplant outcomes and risk of relapse in these patients.

OUTLINE: This is an open-label study.

Conditioning regimen: Patients receive fludarabine IV over 1 hour on days -4 to -2. Patients also undergo total body irradiation on day 0.

Post-transplantation immunosuppression: Patients receive oral cyclosporine on days -3 to 35 followed by a taper until day 180. Patients also receive oral mycophenolate mofetil on day 0 to 27 without tapering.

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00053014